This is little-known story from the Pentagon on 09/11/2001:During a visit with a
chaplain, who happened to be assigned to the Pentagon, I had a chance to hear a
first-hand account of an incident that happened right after Flight 77 hit the
Pentagon.
The chaplain told me what happened at a daycare center near where
the impact occurred. This daycare had many children, including infants who were
in heavy cribs. The daycare supervisor, looking at all the children they needed
to evacuate, was in a panic over what they could do. There were many children,
mostly toddlers, as well as the infants that would need to be taken out with the
cribs. There was no time to try to bundle them into carriers and strollers.
Just then a young Marine came running into the center and asked what they
needed. After hearing what the Center Director was trying to do, he ran back
out into the hallway and disappeared. The director thought, 'Well, here we
are-on our own.'About 2 minutes later, that Marine returned with 40 other
Marines in tow. Each of them grabbed a crib with a child, and the rest started
gathering up toddlers. The director and her staff then helped them take all the
children out of the center and down toward the park near the Potomac and the
Pentagon. Once they got about 3/4 of a mile outside the building, the Marines
stopped in the park, and then did a fabulous thing - they formed a circle with
the cribs, which were quite sturdy and heavy, like the covered wagons in the Old
West. Inside this circle of cribs, they put the toddlers, to keep them from
wandering off. Outside this circle were the 40 Marines, forming a perimeter
around the children and waiting for instructions. There they remained until the
parents could be notified and come get their children. The chaplain then said,
"I don't think any of us saw nor heard of this on any of the news stories of the
day. It was an incredible story of our men there. There wasn't a dry eye in the
room. The thought of those Marines and what they did and how fast they reacted;
could we expect any less from them? It was one of the most touching stories from
the Pentagon.
"Most of us wonder if our lives made any difference. Marines
don't have that problem."
God Bless the USA, our troops, and you
